In Japan, many towns except for the castle towns were politically governed as villages during the Edo era. These towns were called “Zaikata-machi.” Many maps were made in these towns for a variety of purposes. In previous papers, sometimes these maps dealt with city plans, and other times they dealt with village maps in previous works. These kinds of treatments were because of the specialty of these towns. They were urban districts but governed as villages. The author considers it important that we discuss map making in the “Zaikata-machi.” It is important to understand city plans or village maps in detail. This paper is a case study of Ogawa town, one of the “Zaikata-machi” on Musashi province.
Most of the maps in Ogawa were made for disputes concerning the boundary with the nearby village or stall in the periodic market. They were urban problems because expansion of the urban area and economic evolution were the background factors. Therefore these maps show the background factors. Some maps in Ogawa, however, show the rural landscapes. These maps were made for the people who were governing the “Zaikata-machi.” In the “Zaikata-machi”, people made both the maps with urban landscape and the maps for village administration.
